We’re battling pigeons and squirrels at my house. What are your home maintenance problems?

You can come down to the State Fair and ask home repair experts Samantha Strong and John Trostle in person at our booth. They’ll join Kerri onstage at 10:00 on Friday morning. (We’re on the corner of Judson and Nelson near the Dairy Building.)

Or you can leave your question here and we’ll ask John and Samantha to answer them on Friday.

About the blogger

Stephanie Curtis has produced events, daily news shows, documentaries, conferences and call-ins for MPR News. She also was among the pioneering producers who launched The Current. You can hear her discuss movies every Thursday on The Cube Critics.

Related Blog Posts

We have a very small house (900 square feet) built about 120 yrs ago. It still has the original (cast iron, enamal coated) kitchen sink. Although it has an interesting look it is impractical so we would like to replace. We have searched for years to find one narrow enough for the space, and would like a small dishwasher if possible. Any suggestions? There must be European or Japanese options for sinks in small spaces.

Suzanne

Some drawers (for pots and pans, etc.) beneath our counters are seriously in need of replacement. We’d like to replace those and the cabinets, but keep the counters. I see cabinets and drawers for sale all of the time at IKEA, but have no idea how an installation would actually work. Do people do this themselves? I’m having a hard time wrapping my (not-handy) brain around it. Thanks!

Shanda

House centipedes – yuck!

Pamela Balabuszko-Reay

My parents just backed out of buying a townhouse because a large amount of mold was found in the attic during the home inspection. They found a lot of conflicting information on mold remediation. In addition to health issues they worried about reselling the house since there seemed to be no guarantee that the mold wouldn’t return and they would need to disclose that mold was there. Please talk about mold remediation, techniques and what to look for in a mold remediation company. Can you actually get rid of it? Thanks so much.

Bruce

What is the final word on painting stucco? My observation has been to avoid this because no matter how good the paint might be, it eventually begins to peel. What is the best alternative to using paint?

stephanie

If you find mold in an attic, it means insufficient insulation.

If you have it in the basement, you can pull out all carpeting, wall covering and leave basement unfinished.

John adds bring in an expert. It might mean pulling insulation but if it is in the rafters, you need to mediate it. They will scrub your air and seal the mold in the rafters.

Jason

We just ended up paying $7,000 do regrade our yard because it wasn’t done right initially, water flowed towards the house not away. The house was built in 2004 and we’re the second owner and have been in the house for 5 years. Do we have any way to recoup costs from orinal owner or builder?

Ben

What’s your opinion on the effectiveness of rehabbing old windows instead of replacing them? Can rehabbing approach the insulating qualities of getting new windows?

Stephanie Curtis

Jason,

Samantha says you might have a 10 years warranty from the builder that would have transferred to you.

John says it will be very difficult to go after the seller. You would have to prove that they covered up the bad sloping and that they knew about the bad sloping.

john

Your experts seem to be confusing granite with marble for counter-tops.

my granite counter-tops have served very well for over 15 years and look new.

Nathan

I own a townhome w/an attached garage, the garage floor is about a .5-.75 inch BELOW the driveway, but most of the surrounding land slopes away from the home. In winter a small amount of ice/water accumulates at the base of the door when its closed and since last winter the rubber strip on the bottom of the door is separating from the door because of water that freezes in the gap between the closed door and the higher driveway. What can we do? Is there a way to install a bump/strip along the floor of the garage as a barrier?

jon

I think you may want to check your facts on the difference between granite and quartz. Yes, quartz is NSF rated, which is important for liability reasons in a commercial setting. However, granite is not NSF rated because no company or organization has never paid to go through the testing and certification. The reality is that silicon (basic component of granite) is not a food source for bacteria and mold, so it really poses no risk for homeowners.

Regarding sealants, the new impregnating sealants, which absorb into the body of the stone, provide a sealed surface for years. Many sealants provide a written and financially backed guarantee to the homeowner.

The significant difference between granite and quartz is price. Quartz is about 20-50% more expensive than granite. Granite can be installed for as little as $40/SF, whereas quartz will run $60/SF and higher.

Stephanie

Ben

John talked about rehabbing windows. He is a big fan of retro-fitting sash windows. They will remove the weights, put in insulation and replace the sashing with a track. It helps insulate and John says it cosst a lot less than replacing the windows

Karen Ryan

My house is 40 years old. I installed an extra shelf in my “standard” top cupboard for additional glasses/cups. At what point do I have to worry about overloading a top cupboard and having it pull off the wall?

i.e., if I chose to load this cupboard with canned goods, would it be possible to put too much weight into it?

I put this question to the reference librarians at a couple of libraries and no one could give me a clue.

Thanks

Stephanie Curtis

Bruce,

Stucco gets dirty and you want to freshen it up.

You want to get a two coat redash. It’s it more expensive than painting but less than replacing the stucco. They will sandblast the stucco and then apply two news coats.

Aaron

What is your opinion of using an Ozone generator for removing odor and bacteria from homes.

F/U to stucco questions. You don’t have to do anything to stucco? Is what guest the sandblast.. guest talked about for cosmetic only?

Cliff

Dow has an insulating foam sold by the can called Pestblock-it contains bittering agent that mice dont like and an organic insecticide which discourages spiders etc..Also if you stuff steel wool in the gap before spraying you stop the mice!

Alice

We added air conditioning to our forced air system this year. The ducts in the basement now are condensing and dripping water. What needs to be done to fix this?

J M

Asphalt driveway sealer questions…

1) Necessary? yes/no good/bad

2) If yes…

– Frequency?

– Type? i.e. Coal tar vs. non coal tar based?

Ted

We have a 1927 tudor style home in south Minneapolis. The “half-timber” framing has been covered by aluminum wrap at some point in the past. I would like to remove the aluminum, replace the “half-timbers” with white oak or fir. I would prefer not to paint the wood. Any insight into completing this project? Thank you.

Ryan

We’ve lived in our 1950 house for 5 years. There was one previous owner – an elderly man – and the house has smelled musty, sour, and “closed up” since we moved in. We have torn out and replaced any/all carpet and window coverings, we have repainted every room, we have used chlorine dioxide and NOTHING has fixed the smell! We have a new furnace, new a/c unit, and ERV.

What should we look for or try?

Kurt Anton

Great show, writing in from DC for my mom up in Duluth…

Just wondering what one can do about seeping walls in the older house stock up in Duluth with the blue stone foundations. My mother’s basement is always in a state of mildewy dampness, often times with wet conc. floors (health issues a-pleanty?!). She has a new sump pump etc, but is there anything that isn’t insanely expensive to do to prevent this wet basement issue (other than new drain tile on the outside, or inside, or some of these garaunteed water proofing basement treatments often advertised – do they work?)

MANY thanks!

-K

Carly

I get sewer gas coming up through the bathtub or bathroom sink. I run all the taps and flush and can get it to go back down (for a while). I’ve had plumbers in, but it seems you need to have the smell currently happening for anyone to know what is going on. Also they did find broken pipe in a wall, but they fix that and it hasn’t stopped this problem from happening again.

mold remediation mn> :- Yourfloodexpert expert emergency services stop flooding and water damage from occurring in your home in areas such as your blue water restoration, water and fire restoration, mold remediation mn and helps to minimize any structural damage to your property that could occur.